by Kendall Ryan
I nodded, thankful the tense moment had passed. Now I just needed to find a way to survive the remainder of these lessons without dry humping his leg.
Seventeen
MacKenzie
Alexa grabbed my drink so that I could carry the shots back to our table where Ty, the dutiful designated driver, was sipping a soda. I’d already had a few drinks, so walking was becoming a bit of an adventure.
“I don’t understand why you made us come here,” Alexa said. “Usually girls’ night is a quiet bar these days. Are we celebrating something?”
I shook my head. “Can’t a girl just want to go out dancing with her friends every once in a while? We used to come here all the time. When did nightclubs become criminal activity warranting the third degree?”
She rolled her eyes at me, and we scooted back into our seats.
“Are you guys ready to leave yet?” Ty asked when we sat down.
I laughed. “When did you guys get so old? We just got here. At least let me get a good buzz and a dance in.” I pushed one of the kamikazes in front of Alexa, and we toasted. “To girls’ night.” I downed mine and chased it with beer.
“I’m just saying,” Ty said. “We could have at least gone to the Rainbow Room.”
“We went there last month,” I reminded him. “Besides, it’s a lot easier for me to pick up straight men.” I slapped my hand over my mouth, but it couldn’t put the words back in.
Alexa’s eyes got wide and Ty’s jaw dropped.
“What?” I said. “It’s been a while. I just want to get laid.” It was my standard stock answer, but for some reason tonight it didn’t feel right.
“Don’t you have a boyfriend?” Ty asked.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Chris and I haven’t slept together yet, it’s not official.”
Ty put his hand up as if to stop me. “Isn’t that part of the reason you have a boyfriend? That’s one of the benefits, right? That you have a warm, willing body when you need it?”
I knew they wouldn’t understand, which was why I hadn’t planned on telling them I wanted to get laid tonight. Hell, I was so confused, I hardly understood myself. As I sat there, under their watchful, worried stares, it struck me that this is exactly what the old me would have done. I was feeling sorry for myself, and whenever that happened, I threw myself at the first cute man I saw, drinking and dancing, and maybe more to try and make myself feel better. But a dozen years of the same broken cycle should have taught me that it never actually works that way.
Ian and I had gone over self-defense scenarios all afternoon. It turned out he was a really good teacher, and by the end of the day, I could get out from under him without too much effort. But in the course of my lesson, he’d spent enough time between my legs that I really needed a release. But I couldn’t go to Chris for that. Because once we crossed that bridge, there was no going back.
“So, what’s going on with you and Chris?” Alexa asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
“I’m not sure we’re ready to go to the next level yet,” I said.
Alexa leaned forward. “You mean, you aren’t ready. I seriously doubt he has any inhibitions.”
I shrugged and took a swig of my beer. The last shot was hitting me harder than the others, and things were starting to spin a little. Crap.
“I didn’t want to say anything,” Alexa said. “Because I was so glad you were finally dating someone, but are you being fair to Chris? After all, you obviously like…” She paused. “Well, you don’t seem to like Chris that much. And…” She put her fist down on the table. “Fuck it, I’ll say it. You still like Ian. You don’t have to date Ian, but it’s not fair that you lead Chris around when you like someone else.”
I flinched. Alexa had never barked like that at me before.
I pushed myself up to my feet and said, “You don’t know anything.” Then the room spun, and I fell back into my chair. “Shit. I can’t date Ian anyway. He doesn’t want me. But I like Chris. We kiss.”
Chris and I had kissed a few times since we started dating, yet I still wasn’t sure I even wanted to be dating him. One thing was for sure—Alexa’s nagging wasn’t helping me figure it out.
Ty reached across the table and put his hand on mine. “She’s right, you know.” He leaned in. “I was at the last fight. I saw how you were with Chris. He jumped in to save you from that guy who was bugging you, and you barely said thank you to him before you ran back to sit next to me, and your eyes were on Ian the entire time.”
“So? Was I supposed to be all, ‘Oh, my hero!’? I’m not like that. I can take care of myself.”
Ty’s eyes widened. “Are you listening to yourself right now? You are so full of shit. That whole evening, you had been telling me how you liked to pretend the fighters were fighting for your honor.” He lifted his hand as if to wave me off.
I responded by waving him off too, but didn’t say a word. Damn, I had to be drunk. Usually I had a comeback for this kind of stuff.
“Whatever, MacKenzie. And then there was the way you kept on flying to the cage anytime Ian was hit.”
“That’s my job,” I said. God, what the hell was this, an intervention?
“What about the ride to the ER? What was that in the back of my car? I saw him holding you. Damn, y’all are both idiots.”
They might be right, I did like Ian, but so what, he would never be mine, and I still thought I could make things work with Chris. Maybe. “Can we please talk about something else?” I said, flagging down a waitress and ordering another round of shots.
Ty and Alexa shared a look, then relaxed a little, leaning back in their seats. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that their prying was over, for now anyway.
I abandoned any thoughts of getting laid, realizing that wasn’t what I wanted or needed. As for what I did want, I had no idea, so I tried not to think about it, instead throwing back a few more shots than I should have, forcing us to leave before the club even got busy.
On the way home I passed out in the back seat.
When I woke up, we were parking in front of Alexa’s house. She and Ty helped me inside and set me on the sofa.
“Alexa, I’m really sorry about tonight. You guys are right, Ian is totally flipping awesome. He’s hot, right? But he’s also so sweet. Did you know he’s teaching me self-defense?”
Alexa smiled. “Get some rest.” She pulled a blanket up over me, and I was out again.
Eighteen
Ian
It felt good to be back at the gym. Chris’s gym, that is. I was only there to talk business with Chris, still doing all my training at the home gym, but I was going stir crazy, and it was great to see the guys again.
“Hey, gimpy,” Chris said to greet me when I walked into his office.
“Hey, douche-roll.” I sat down on the couch. “I see you’re still running this place into the shitter.”
“You didn’t see the new talent when you came in?” he asked.
I assumed he was talking about the guy who was making meatloaf out of one of the guys in the practice cage. “Where did you find him?”
“That’s Jonah. He’s the guy I brought in to train with you.”
“Yeah, uh, I don’t know if you noticed, but I can’t really fight right now.” I pointed at the arm strapped to my chest in a brace.
“He was looking for a new gym and excited about moving to the city, so I told him to come anyway. He’s integrated into the family quite well.”
“What is he, welterweight?” I asked.
Chris shook his head. “Nope, he’s middleweight, just like you. He’s already had several pro fights. You need to hurry up and get yourself back together so you can try him out.”
“We’re working on it.” I looked out through the one-way glass to the gym’s treadmill. It was empty.
“She doesn’t work today.”
“Huh?” I turned back to him. “Yeah, I know. How are things going with you two?” I hadn’t meant to ask, but when it cam
e to MacKenzie, I couldn’t help myself. I had to know.
He nodded. “All good. I’m thinking about asking her to come with us to Vegas for the fight. Obviously it would be good to have her there to help you with your last-minute training, but I also thought it would be nice to stay after with her and do a long weekend.”
Fuck. That was what I got for asking. Now I couldn’t find my stupid words. And to make it worse, I think my mouth might have been hanging open.
“What? You think it’s too soon?”
I shrugged, then shook my head. “I don’t know, dude. I’m not dating her, you are. Have you asked her yet?”
“No, I was hoping to ask her this Friday. I have a big date planned, and I thought that would be the big reveal at the end.”
I hated this conversation. I knew I needed to stay out of MacKenzie’s love life, but that didn’t mean I wanted to hear about other people enjoying her.
Thankfully my phone buzzed. I dug it out of my pocket. It was Sophia.
“Hey, Sis. Where the hell have you been?” I got up and motioned to Chris that I had to take the call, and stepped out of the office.
“Hi, Ian.” Her voice sounded overly casual. “I’ve been busy. Sorry I haven’t called you back. Look, I need a little help…do you think you could loan me some money?”
I sighed. Sophia was lousy with money. We both got the same monthly amount from our trust funds, but she always managed to burn through hers in the first three weeks. We’d just gotten our money for the month last week, though. This was early for her.
“Did you ask Mom and Dad?” I asked, knowing full well that she hadn’t. They were trying to teach her fiscal responsibility, which meant they refused to give her any more than her normal monthly amount.
“You know I can’t,” she said. “Come on, just a little to help me through to next month?”
“That’s what you always say, Sophia. Besides, don’t you still owe me like two grand from last month?” It was true, but I didn’t really care. I was just messing with her.
“Ian,” she whined.
Damn, I hated when she whined. “Fine. I’ll loan you the money. When do you need it?”
“Is now a bad time?”
I looked back through the door to Chris’s office where he sat waiting for me to finish the call. If I left now, I wouldn’t have to hear him talking about MacKenzie anymore.
“I’ll be over in five.” I hung up and popped back into the office. “Chris, I have to run. My sister’s in one of her financial holes, and I need to go dig her out.”
Chris laughed. “Sure. We can talk about the plane tickets and stuff later. Call me.”
The gym wasn’t too far from my place, which was on the way to Sophia’s. I stopped off and grabbed my checkbook, which read like the story of how often Sophia had to be bailed out. Not that I cared. I had enough to go around, but it had been getting noticeably worse lately.
I flipped through my checkbook as I rode the elevator up to her place. Shit. Maybe our parents were right to cut her off. Of course, that was easy for them to do since they were off sailing in the Mediterranean. Call it big-brother obligation, but I found it harder to just turn my cheek when she needed me.
When I got to the door, it took her over a minute to answer. I was beginning to wonder if I needed to go home and grab my spare key to her place, but she finally opened up and stepped out into the hallway, barring me from coming in.
“Sorry, the place is a mess,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to see it.”
“Whatever.” I shrugged. This was definitely the last check I gave her. For a while, anyway. “How much do you need?”
“Five,” she said.
“I hope you mean five hundred, because if you need five thousand, you’re going to have to go to a bank. I can’t keep on giving you huge chunks of money.”
“This is the last time, I promise. I just had car trouble and I don’t have enough room on my card, so…”
I swear, she always had car trouble. For a fancy foreign car, it was in the shop an awful lot. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually seen her driving it.
I opened the checkbook and started writing. “This is the last one, Sophia.”
“Yeah, you already said that.”
“I mean it, though. You’re sweet and smart and a great sister, but you are also the stupidest person I know when it comes to money.” I signed the check and handed it to her.
“Fine, whatever,” she said as she took the check. “Is the lecture done? Because I have a date.”
“The lecture is done. Is your date paying tonight, or am I?” I smiled at her. She might be a little snot, but she was also my sister. It was hard to stay mad at her.
“He is, of course. Now let me go so I can get ready.”
Nineteen
Ian
One of the best things about being injured was that I could drink again. Sure, I was working out, but my arm needed to get a little better before I could go back into full training mode. So training-mode rules didn’t apply.
Since I couldn’t spar with Cade, we had taken to going to the bar on Fridays instead. This Friday we were out at Buddie’s, a dive over in his part of town. They had a great selection of microbrews, and we were working on trying out as many as we could and still stand.
Our waitress came over to the booth and dropped off round number four, smiling at us before making her way back to the bar. It was a slow night at Buddie’s.
As soon as she left, the look on Cade’s face changed. I’d seen something in his expression earlier. It was that look he got when he wanted to have one of his pussy-ass “girl talks”; that was what I called it when he wanted to get all emotional with me. The look meant he had something on his mind, and when we were drunk enough, we’d hash it out.
I pounded half my pint of beer and braced myself. “Out with it, Cade.”
He took another pull from his beer, taking his time with it, then finally put the glass down on the table. “What’s going on with you and MacKenzie?”
“Fuck, dude.” I looked around the half-empty bar, hoping to find an easy way to get out of having this conversation. “Nothing.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“Fuck that. I haven’t slept with her. Hell, I haven’t even kissed her since that night.”
I was getting worked up. Cade had been the one to warn me that Kenzie had a tough upbringing, growing up in foster care, and she’d been through enough. She didn’t need me dicking her over. After that, he’d launched into a speech about how she was his girl’s best friend…blah, blah, blah. I’d backed off, so why I was getting a fucking lecture now, I had no clue.
Cade scooted forward in his seat. “You’re getting physical therapy coaching sessions from her, and giving her one-on-one self-defense lessons, and you’re telling me you’ve never gotten any bonus contact out of the deal?”
“Nope.”
“Okay. So, when’s the last time you had any pussy?”
“It’s been a while, I guess.” I tried to remember the last time. It had been a long while. “I’ve been in training mode. You know I can’t chase tail while I’m training.”
“You are so full of it.” He knocked his beer glass against mine. “You haven’t been in training mode for the entire past five months. And don’t even tell me you’re too injured. Do the math, you idiot. You haven’t bragged once about getting laid since you met MacKenzie.”
“So?” I was getting seriously pissed. He needed to drop this shit.
“Okay, then why aren’t you out there getting some?”
I hadn’t thought about it before, but he had a point. “Damn, are you seriously trying to be my sex therapist right now?”
“Why don’t you just date her, already?”
“For the fuck of fuck. Are you shitting me?” I thought I knew what it was like to see red, but I was seeing a much more vibrant shade than I’d seen in a while. He was going to feel this at our next sparring session
. “You told me to back off that night,” I spat.
Cade leaned back in his seat and his eyes widened. He put his hands up in front of him. “Hey, don’t explode. I didn’t want you to pull a one-night stand on her. She’s Alexa’s best friend. They’re like family. How the hell did I know you were going to go all boombox over the head with her?”
“You told me I couldn’t touch her because it would be like you trying to date Sophia. You pulled the sister card on me.”
“Fine, I un-pull the sister card.”
I wanted to punch him. “It’s too late. She’s moved on. She’s with Chris now.”
“Dude, maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this, but she crashed on our couch last night after a particularly intense girls’ night out. I shouldn’t have listened, but it was hard not to. She was shouting about how awesome you were.”
For a split second, I allowed myself to consider how amazing it would be if he was right, and she really did still want me. But then I laughed. “She was drunk. How can I take that seriously?”
“Whatever. I’m just saying. If you want her, you have all the information. Stop acting like a pussy and man up before you lose your chance with her. It makes me sick to see you like this, man.”
I finished off my beer. The prick might be right. “Are you done playing sex therapist now?”
Cade nodded and finished his pint. “Let’s get another round.”
I signaled the waitress.
Twenty
MacKenzie
Friday night was supposed to be a big date night. At least, that was what Chris said. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going or anything, which made me nervous, but he ended up taking me to a great restaurant, and afterward we went to a rooftop bar and had several rounds. I was having a good time, but starting to wonder what was so special about dinner and drinks.
Chris took a sip of his drink. “So, I know we aren’t supposed to talk about work when we’re out, but I’ve been meaning to ask you how you like working for me at the gym.”